Days 138 to 140: Bardstown - Nolin River Lake - Barren River Lake, KY

We stayed an extra day at Bardstown, taking the opportunity to get caught up on chores (laundry, fixing the slide on Alea's screen door, finding the Kentucky pin for our drawer pedestal and organizing my research from the past couple of months).

Lana knows how to have fun in the heat!

On Friday morning we jumped on the freeway and headed back to Sonora, where we had been three days earlier.  This is the point where we start heading for the Deep South.  We aren't relishing the thought of even more heat and humidity than we experienced in Missouri last month, but, as we always say, "it is what it is."  We will deal with it, somehow.  Heat, humidity and The South would seem to be synonyms.  At least in August.  We are here easily at least a month too early, probably two months.

Alea rode 30 miles to Nolin River Lake, where we camped at Wax Campground ($23, power, water and adjustable showers).  We booked for two nights so that we wouldn't be trying to squeeze in at another campground on Saturday night.  Plus we've figured out that we are probably about two weeks ahead of schedule for reaching El Paso, TX by mid October.  So it is once again time to put the brakes on in order to soak up some of that extra time.

We don't just see corn and soybeans - sometimes we see tobacco!

We used some of our time off to take stock of what we were carrying in the van, thinking that after a year of traveling we could probably get rid of some stuff.  We did.  And as a result we've got our drawer pedestal organized a bit better.

We were in a cell reception dead zone the last two nights - no signal at all for either AT&T or Republic.  So we had to wait until we were well down the road before we could update the blog.

This morning I rode 53 miles to Barren River Lake, KY, where we are camped at Tailwater Campground ($20, power, water and adjustable showers).  My shifting was pretty much a mess the whole way, so it appears my troubles are due to warn front chainrings, and not a maladjusted rear derailleur.  

We could be stuck here for a while.  We've ordered some replacement chainrings, but the fastest delivery option gives a delivery range between Tuesday and Friday.  We're hoping it will be here by Wednesday at the latest.  But this isn't the worst place we could have picked to sit and twiddle our thumbs.  About 11 miles from here (as the crow flies), my third great grandparents were married on 16 Jan 1810.  They were Elder Lewis and Ellender (Cater) Williams.  A short time later, they moved to Indiana Territory, where the Williams clan settled in the vicinity of Cynthiana.  So having time off here will give us time to see where Lewis' father had owned property before moving farther west.  And perhaps I can poke around to see if there is a local historical society that might have information about some of the people that settled near him (many of whom also went to Indiana).